And so the story continues...
Day 5: Piahia
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| View we woke up to |
Yes, we are finally on the road! Got out around 6 p.m. last night and headed north. Too dark to see naything but full moon and awesome stars! James would be jealous of the stars visible around here..you can see the milky way like I've never seen! We decided to crash last night in the can at a spot in Piahia. Woke up in the morning to the Bay of Islands and blue skies! It is so beautiful! Washed up in a public beach restroom and then headed for Russel in hopes of meeting up with Nora at some point today. You take a ferry from Piahia to Russell maybe 6 mins. tops and then you are on the peninsula. We are surrounded by water, little islands, and trees.
I'm writing this from the top of Flagstaff Hill and god, is it cool. :) Also, standing next to this flag pole that was a part of the Maoria revolt against the British settlers that arrived here in the 1800's. The flagpole was put up in 1840 by the British and chopped down FOUR times by Maori. It was rebuilt in 1858 as a peace offering and is still standing today. So awesome to learn about. Oh, and p.s. THE VAN IS AWESOME. Pretty damn comfortable to sleep in too! Finished this day off visiting with Nora's family and then ferried back to Piahia and started driving north again. Day 6: "Don't Honk the Horn with your Ass"
Well, Ruth just honked the horn to let everyone know that we've arrived at Bayly's Beach. To finish what we did yesterday we ended up in Karikari Peninsula, checked out Matai Beach at the end of it and Holy Smokes! It was incredible. Completely empty, not walked on, white sand beach out in the middle of nowhere. (Easily one of my favorite spots of the whole trip) We slept in the van there and had a bonfire on the beach which was really relaxing. I miss bonfires. We also apparently went to some waterfalls in the area as visible from the picture above.. however, I'm not entirely sure what falls these are... we came across a lot of them. But! Check out the rainbow that you can see in this picture. I think they were somewhere in the way north. Kaitaia??
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| Before swimming @ Matai Beach.. Brr! |
Grabbed Fish n' Chips in Keikhoe today and started heading south down the west coast of the northland peninsula. Went to Ngwana Springs which are Hot (thermal) Pools on the outskirts of town. It was in the kind of run down place but turned out to be incredible. Ended up talking to the older man that was "working" (aka sitting in the hot pool with us) and he told us all about the area. They had about 15 different pools all different colors (from different minerals) and temperatures. It was kind of raining so we got to sit in a pretty hot one which was so relaxing. It was great & now we smell like sulfur, ha! But at least our skin is soft! Left the springs in hopes of camping by Kei Ewi Lakes tonight only to get there and find that the campsites are closed for logging :/ so now we are at Bayly's Beach in some cul-de-sac next to a house that we are hoping no one lives in, haha! Ohhh, the adventure never stops. I can hear the ocean though so that's a good sign!
Day 7: We Severely Need to Invest in A Flashlight
Woke up this morning in the cul-de-sac to find cows grazing next to our car haha! That was neat. Then we headed south to Dargaville in search of a backpackers to take a shower. Turns out the BPers here is closed in winter..ughhh. We ended up stumbling up to the door of McLean's B&B and this precious old man named John answers the door and we stand there awkwardly (probably smelled awful) and asked him if we could just use the showers. Turns out his wife had recently had a stroke so they hadn't been taking in many at their B&B but he said no problem took us upstairs to our own shower and room to get ready. They were such a sweet couple with many recommendations for travel and such a good spirit. John and I joked about buying beer before the liquor stores closed for the weekend and we had a few laughs. Adorable. Other than the fact that he called me a yankee =P We checked out the public gardens in Dargaville and they were really disappointing.. but they had a cool playground constructed like a pirate ship!
So, after giving Dargaville a chance..and being not too impressed, we moved on to bigger and better things. Headed for Whangeri next and went to Whangeri Falls and for a hike. After that we went to Abbey Caves which were kinda cool but didn't want to climb too far into them without gear. Plus the fact that caves just kinda freak me out... as I've realized from this trip. There was also a 'Rock Forest' sign in the area which we checked out just far enough to find a grave from 1884 of a two-year-old boy complete with plastic toys all around it... CREEPY. So we hightailed it out of there as fast as possible. Grabbed some McD's soft-serve ice cream...(this quickly became a tadition) and headed for Bream Bay. Waves are awesome, water is clear, cool cliffs to either side of us and islands off in the distance. Hot here earlier than most nights so we set up shop-- Tried out our gas burner that came with the van & made pasta with leek and spicy pepper sauce and had some beers while sitting on Lang's Beach. This is another favorite beach of mine from our trip.. Perfection. We live a rough life, aye?
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| Lang's Beach @ night |
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| practicing photography w/cool tree |
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First time cooking was a success!
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Day 8: One week & Last day of the Northland
Today was full of driving. I think we drove for somewhere around 5 hours. Wen't to Manghwei Heads this morning after leaving Lang's Beach... I can say that I have been there..but I couldn't tell you what the hell the heads were. (This is a reoccuring theme in the trip...i think they try to hard to make everything a tourist spot sometimes). After that, we continued south toward Auckland (my favorite place...) got some groceries @ Pak N' Save (almost forgot the muffins!) and headed for Coromandel Peninsula. Somewhere along the way we went to this cafe called 'Dragon's Rest' and got AMAZING muffins. Honey & Oat and I got a Cappucino w/ cinnamon on top. Mmm! Decided to skip past the crappy town of Thames (pronounced Tims) and are now on the East Coast of the Coromandel in the quaint town of Tairua at Ocean's Beach. A million beaches right? I know.. we decided to follow the ocean during our travels. The beach is complete with high school kids driving in for a late night make out sesh every 20 mins. Most of them leave once they see our van though...who's the creepers now?! ha! I absolutely loved Tairua. We decided to climb to the top of Paku Hill and then headed back down to a picnic table to make our 2nd home cooked meal with our stove. The stars are out again tonight. <3
Below is an eclectic collection of the events that are either written about or captured on film from the day:
From the top!: First of all, L&P is by far my most favorite soft drink in the Southern Hemisphere. Lemon&Paeroa for those of you that are wondering...and what is Paeroa?? I'm not really sure yet. But it's delicious and it quickly became a staple to our day to day adventures in the van (still attempting to think of a name for the beast). 2nd picture is us hanging out our swimsuits to try only to forget about them and then drive to a beach 15 minutes away with a truck honking at us and us going WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?! Landing at the beach to find that..well, we aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree ;) Thennnn we just have some pictures of me hugging trees/the coast from paku hill/ me at the top of paku hill praying to the sun god for more sun and less clouds.
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| makes the world go 'round |
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| embarassingly left our swimsuits out to dry while we drove.. |
I'm writing this from the top of Flagstaff Hill and god, is it cool. :) Also, standing next to this flag pole that was a part of the Maoria revolt against the British settlers that arrived here in the 1800's. The flagpole was put up in 1840 by the British and chopped down FOUR times by Maori. It was rebuilt in 1858 as a peace offering and is still standing today. So awesome to learn about. Oh, and p.s. THE VAN IS AWESOME. Pretty damn comfortable to sleep in too! Finished this day off visiting with Nora's family and then ferried back to Piahia and started driving north again. 
Well, Ruth just honked the horn to let everyone know that we've arrived at Bayly's Beach. To finish what we did yesterday we ended up in Karikari Peninsula, checked out Matai Beach at the end of it and Holy Smokes! It was incredible. Completely empty, not walked on, white sand beach out in the middle of nowhere. (Easily one of my favorite spots of the whole trip) We slept in the van there and had a bonfire on the beach which was really relaxing. I miss bonfires. We also apparently went to some waterfalls in the area as visible from the picture above.. however, I'm not entirely sure what falls these are... we came across a lot of them. But! Check out the rainbow that you can see in this picture. I think they were somewhere in the way north. Kaitaia?? 
Woke up this morning in the cul-de-sac to find cows grazing next to our car haha! That was neat. Then we headed south to Dargaville in search of a backpackers to take a shower. Turns out the BPers here is closed in winter..ughhh. We ended up stumbling up to the door of McLean's B&B and this precious old man named John answers the door and we stand there awkwardly (probably smelled awful) and asked him if we could just use the showers. Turns out his wife had recently had a stroke so they hadn't been taking in many at their B&B but he said no problem took us upstairs to our own shower and room to get ready. They were such a sweet couple with many recommendations for travel and such a good spirit. John and I joked about buying beer before the liquor stores closed for the weekend and we had a few laughs. Adorable. Other than the fact that he called me a yankee =P We checked out the public gardens in Dargaville and they were really disappointing.. but they had a cool playground constructed like a pirate ship! 
So, after giving Dargaville a chance..and being not too impressed, we moved on to bigger and better things. Headed for Whangeri next and went to Whangeri Falls and for a hike. After that we went to Abbey Caves which were kinda cool but didn't want to climb too far into them without gear. Plus the fact that caves just kinda freak me out... as I've realized from this trip. There was also a 'Rock Forest' sign in the area which we checked out just far enough to find a grave from 1884 of a two-year-old boy complete with plastic toys all around it... CREEPY. So we hightailed it out of there as fast as possible. Grabbed some McD's soft-serve ice cream...(this quickly became a tadition) and headed for Bream Bay. Waves are awesome, water is clear, cool cliffs to either side of us and islands off in the distance. Hot here earlier than most nights so we set up shop-- Tried out our gas burner that came with the van & made pasta with leek and spicy pepper sauce and had some beers while sitting on Lang's Beach. This is another favorite beach of mine from our trip.. Perfection. We live a rough life, aye? 
Today was full of driving. I think we drove for somewhere around 5 hours. Wen't to Manghwei Heads this morning after leaving Lang's Beach... I can say that I have been there..but I couldn't tell you what the hell the heads were. (This is a reoccuring theme in the trip...i think they try to hard to make everything a tourist spot sometimes). After that, we continued south toward Auckland (my favorite place...) got some groceries @ Pak N' Save (almost forgot the muffins!) and headed for Coromandel Peninsula. Somewhere along the way we went to this cafe called 'Dragon's Rest' and got AMAZING muffins. Honey & Oat and I got a Cappucino w/ cinnamon on top. Mmm! Decided to skip past the crappy town of Thames (pronounced Tims) and are now on the East Coast of the Coromandel in the quaint town of Tairua at Ocean's Beach. A million beaches right? I know.. we decided to follow the ocean during our travels. The beach is complete with high school kids driving in for a late night make out sesh every 20 mins. Most of them leave once they see our van though...who's the creepers now?! ha! I absolutely loved Tairua. We decided to climb to the top of Paku Hill and then headed back down to a picnic table to make our 2nd home cooked meal with our stove. The stars are out again tonight. <3
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